Codec control

ABSTRACT

A method and system for a software driver of a graphics controller to work with a display codec. The software driver may be configured to work with different display codecs at different periods of time while using a default configuration. Other embodiments are also described.

Specific matter disclosed herein relates to codec control.

BACKGROUND

Heretofore, there has been no standard command interface for displaycodecs; each codec has used a proprietary register set for controlpurposes. Codecs from different companies are likely to haveincompatible commands. Even different codecs from the same company arelike to have incompatible commands. Conventionally, adding support for anew display codec to graphics controller software has involved one oftwo options:

-   -   1) Adding the new codec by “hard-coding” it into graphics        controller software; or    -   2) Adding to the graphics controller software a new software        module compliant with a pre-specified hardware abstraction layer        (HAL) for the new codec.

Unfortunately, both of these options involve developing a new version ofthe graphics controller software.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments will be described withreference to the following figures, wherein like numeral refer to likepart, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating data and command transmission insystems such as FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a detailed diagram illustrating a system embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating software-hardware interactions that mayoccur at least in part in transmissions of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process for communicating between a codecand a graphics controller according to principles of an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, specific details of exemplary embodimentsof the present invention are set forth. However, it is understood thatembodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specificdetails. In other instances, circuits, structures and techniques havenot been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding ofthis description.

Communication with digital display devices has become of increasedinterest due to, among other reasons, recent FCC (Federal CommunicationsCommission) regulations/standards on digital communications that havebeen set regarding digital signals and digital displays such astelevision sets. Specifically, television sets and computer systems arecurrently being created to utilize the recent FCC changes in digitaldisplay communication technologies.

The ever-increasing performance of personal computers (PC's), e.g.,desktop computers, laptop computers, palmtop computers, etc., hasallowed them to serve as hosts to a wide range of applications such asvideo. To understand how different applications work, an overview of thecomponents of a PC is believed appropriate.

PCs often include audio controller drives for speakers and may receiveinput from a microphone as well. Many of today's audio controllers arefairly sophisticated and may be capable of sending high quality surroundsound to an external amplifier.

PCs may also include an input/output (I/O) controller that takes inputfrom a mouse and keyboard. The I/O controller essentially serves as thefront door between the user and the computer. The I/O controller alsoreads and writes data to disk drives. Data stored on the disk drivesremain intact even when the PC is turned off.

The PC often includes a “graphics controller” that may drive a displaydevice such as a monitor. The graphics controller controls the visualinterface to the PC. The graphics controller may display video on thePC. Some graphics controllers can also capture video. A graphicscontroller may operate with a default software configuration unlessprogrammed otherwise for a particular device configuration. Although notillustrated, as different PCs may have different graphics controllers, aplurality of graphics controllers may need to be considered whenselecting a display device for the PC. Each of the graphics controllersmay be considered to operate with its particular default graphicscontroller software.

The collection of physical silicon that is the memory controller and I/Ocontroller is often referred to as a “chipset.” The chipset may besoldered directly to a thin sandwich of insulation and conductive pathsknown as a motherboard.

The audio and graphics controllers may be separate silicon chipssoldered directly to the motherboard, or they may be placed on daughtercards and plugged into expansion slots on the motherboard. Daughtercards are easily removable and thus easily upgradeable.

To display “images” on a “display device” (sometimes referred to hereinas only a “display”) requires a codec. As will be understood by those ofordinary skill in the art and viewing the present disclosure, the termdisplay is used herein to encompass displays such as flat panel screens,computer monitors, LCDs (liquid crystal displays), HDTVs (highdefinition televisions), plasma television screens, etc. In addition,display may refer to either digital or analog displays that operate withsimilar techniques.

A “codec” is the interface between a display and digital signals thatare being transmitted to the display to provide an image to be displayedon the display or computer monitor. As described in more detail inrelation to FIGS. 1-3, the digital signals may be transmitted from acomputer processor 102 to a computer monitor/display 120, or the digitalsignals may originate from a television signal source such as a standardcable television outlet 170, satellite transmission 180, or other sourceof digital signals such as a non-satellite wireless transmission device190 to a television screen/display 150 such as may be found in a homeentertainment center or otherwise. Further, the digital signals may betransmitted from some other source of digital images before beingreceived at a digital display. Of course, the digital images will passthrough a codec, e.g., codec 119, wireless graphics controller/codec160, etc.

The codec is sometimes referred to as a “display codec.” Because of thevaried types of digital displays available to consumers, developers ofdisplay codecs have been unable to produce an acceptable display codecto support digital displays in general. Display codecs may be“configured” to meet the particular specifications of the digitaldisplay with which it is expected to communicate for the display ofimages. Display codecs may be developed with particular default settingswhich may be referred to as a “default configuration” that may be latermodified to fit the needs of a particular digital display for displayingimages, and, among other things, depending on the source of the digitalsignals for display on the digital display. Further, for at least thesame reasons, developers of graphics controllers have not been able toproduce a graphics controller for displaying digital images on differenttypes of displays, i.e., computer monitors, television screens, flatpanel/screen display devices, etc.

The phrase display codec, also referred to herein as a “digital displaycodec” is intended to include software and possibly one of, or acombination of both, analog and digital hardware devices. As referred toherein, the display codec may convert input signals representing, atleast in part, successive pictures/images (video) into a different videoformat for producing output signals that may then be transmitted by thedisplay codec. Both the input and output signals may be analog, digital,or a combination of both analog and digital. In addition to signalsexplicitly encoding and/or representing the pictures themselves, thecodecs may accept input control signals that affect the behavior of thedisplay codec by modifying register values that may be associated withthe display codec. The display codec may also accept as an input and/ortransmit as an output, among other things, information about the pictureformat such as a resolution and aspect ratio.

The term “software driver” as used herein refers to a module (software,hardware, or otherwise) that may control compliant display codecs. Asoftware driver known as a “universal software driver” may controlmultiple display codecs that may have different codec capabilities. Theuniversal software driver may control more than one type of displaycodec without modification, e.g., the universal software driver mayremain in a “default configuration” when the display codec is changed.This control is sometimes referred to as “recognizing” or“communicating” with a digital display because the display codec for theparticular digital display may “receive” and/or “transmit” digitalsignals from a source and be configured to recognize those digitalsignals before communicating with or transmitting to an associateddigital display for the display of images that correlate to the digitalsignals.

As used herein, the term “program” includes 1) a software program whichmay be stored in a storage medium and is executable by a processor or 2)a hardware configuration program useable for configuring a programmablehardware element.

The term “software program” is intended to include any type of programinstructions, code, script and/or data, or combinations thereof, thatmay be stored in a storage medium and executed by a processor orprocessing system. Exemplary software programs include programs writtenin text-based programming languages, such as C, C++, Pascal, Fortran,Cobol, Java, assembly language, etc.; graphical programs (programswritten in graphical programming languages); assembly language programs;programs that have been compiled to machine language; scripts; and othertypes of executable software.

The term “programmable hardware element” is intended to include varioustypes of programmable hardware, reconfigurable hardware, programmablelogic, or field-programmable devices (FPDs), such as one or more FPGAs(Field Programmable Gate Arrays), or one or more PLDs (ProgrammableLogic Devices), such as one or more Simple PLDs (SPLDs) or one or moreComplex PLDs (CPLDs), or other types of programmable hardware. Aprogrammable hardware element may also be referred to as “reconfigurablelogic.” A programmable hardware element may be configured using ahardware configuration program.

The term “hardware configuration program” is intended to include aprogram or data structure that can be used to program a programmablehardware element.

The term “machine-readable” instructions as referred to herein relatesto expressions which may be understood by one or more machines forperforming one or more logical operations. For example, machine-readableinstructions may comprise instructions which are interpretable by aprocessor compiler for executing one or more operations on one or moredata objects. However, this is merely an example of machine-readableinstructions and embodiments of the present invention are not limited inthis respect.

The phrase “storage medium” as referred to herein relates to mediacapable of maintaining expressions which are perceivable by one or moremachines. For example, a storage medium may comprise one or more storagedevices for storing machine-readable instructions or data. Such storagedevices may comprise storage media such as, for example, optical, flash,magnetic or semiconductor storage media. However, these are merelyexamples of a storage medium and embodiments of the present inventionare not limited in these respects. Storage medium is also sometimesreferred to as a memory medium, a machine-readable medium, acomputer-readable medium, a processor-readable medium, etc., but forpurposes of the present disclosure will be referred to only as storagemedium.

The term “logic” as referred to herein relates to structure forperforming one or more logical operations. For example, logic maycomprise circuitry which provides one or more output signals based uponone or more input signals. Such circuitry may comprise a finite statemachine which receives a digital input and provides a digital output, orcircuitry which provides one or more analog output signals in responseto one or more analog input signals. Such circuitry may be provided inan application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or FPGA. Also, logicmay comprise machine-readable instructions stored in a storage medium incombination with processing circuitry to execute such machine-readableinstructions. However, these are merely examples of structures which mayprovide logic and embodiments of the present invention are not limitedin this respect.

A “processing system” as referred to herein relates to hardware and/orsoftware resources for processing expressions that may be found in astorage medium. A “host processing system” relates to a processingsystem which may be adapted to communicate with a “peripheral device.”For example, a “peripheral” device may provide inputs to or receiveoutputs from a host processing system. However, these are merelyexamples of processing and host processing systems and a peripheraldevice, and embodiments of the present invention are not limited inthese respects.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, the appearances ofthe phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system embodiment 130. As shown inthe abstract, system 130 includes a graphics controller/codec device 160that is coupled to a display 150. The system 130 may include a satellite140 having an antenna 142 that transmits digital signals 180 to anantenna 144 at the graphics controller/codec device 160 before passingto the display 150. The digital signals 180 enter the graphicscontroller/codec device 160 where the digital signals 180 are processedfor transmission to the display 150. The graphics controller portion ofthe device 160 includes a software driver that is configured to workwith different codecs at different periods of time while using a defaultconfiguration of the software driver. The software driver of thegraphics controller/codec device 160 is written to meet a standard thatallows codec hardware to be exchanged while leaving the graphicscontroller software in the graphics controller/codec device 160.

Also illustrated in FIG. 1 is a cable television outlet 170 that maysupply digital signals to the graphics controller/codec device 160before passing those signals on to the display 150. In addition, thesystem 130 may include a non-satellite wireless transmission device 170that may transmit signals to the graphics controller/codec device 160via an antenna 192 transmitting signals to the antenna 144 of thegraphics controller/codec device 160 before passing the signals to thedisplay 150. The graphics controller/codec device 160 should beunderstood to include the appropriate hardware/software to recognize andcommunicate with the signals whether the signals originate fromsatellite 140, non-satellite 190, cable TV outlet 170, etc.

Of course, the system 130, or individual components of the system 130could be realized via software emulation as will be understood by thoseof ordinary skill in the art upon viewing the present embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of display datatransmissions 200 in the system 130, specifically showingsoftware-hardware interactions in a first portion of the system 130 suchas the first portion 104 (see FIG. 3). Graphics controller software 202may have a control module 204 that sends software commands 206 to acommand interface 207 of display codec hardware 208. The graphicscontroller software 202 also communicates with graphics controllerhardware 210 where pixel data 212 is transmitted to the display codechardware 208. The pixel data 212 is formatted in the display codechardware 208 according to the commands 206 that are received at thecommand interface 207 of the display codec hardware 208 before the pixeldata 212 is transmitted to a digital display 214. The digital display214 may display the pixel data 212 in a manner that allows the pixeldata 212 to be viewed by a user of a system such as the system 130.Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the digitaldisplay 214 may be replaced with the display 150, the digital display314 (see FIG. 4), and/or another similar display. In other words, aplurality of displays have been illustrated in the accompanying figures.Further, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that thesoftware driver may comprise part of the graphics controller software202, sometimes referred to herein as the universal software driver. Theuniversal software driver may be located in the storage medium 106 (seeFIG. 3) or in another suitable storage medium.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a system embodiment 100. System 100 maysupport digital display codecs using a driver according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. System 100 may include a centralprocessing unit (CPU or processor) 102, an Ethernet card 103 may also becoupled to the CPU 102, and the CPU 102 may be coupled to a firstportion 104 of the computer system 100. A memory (storage medium) 106may be coupled to the first portion 104 and the first portion 104 mayalso be coupled to a second portion 108 which in turn may be coupled toother computer devices such as disk drives 110, a mouse 112, and akeyboard 114.

In the illustrated embodiment, the first portion 104 includes a memorycontrol hub 116 that may be coupled to the memory 106, the CPU 102, thesecond portion 108, and a graphics controller 118. The graphicscontroller 118 may be coupled to a display codec 119 which may becoupled to a monitor (sometimes referred to as a “display”) 120 fortransmission of digital signals to display, among other things,graphical or digital images on the monitor 120. The second portion 108includes an input/output controller hub 122 that may be coupled to thememory controller hub 116 of the first portion 104. The input/outputcontroller hub 122 may also be coupled to an audio controller 124 whichmay in turn be coupled to speakers 126 and/or a microphone 128. Asdescribed in more detail in relation to FIG. 2, the first portion 104 ofthe computer system 100 operates with a display codec that may include acommand interface.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating exemplary software-hardwareinteractions that may occur in the digital display data transmissions200 when digital signals are transmitted to the computer monitor (ordigital display) 314. One may appreciate that the illustratedsoftware-hardware interactions may occur in the first portion 104. Thegraphics controller 118 includes an integrated Graphics MemoryController Chipset (GMCH) 302 supporting one or more ports 304, such asa Serial Digital Video Output (SDVO) port. The port 304 communicateswith a device (or codec) 306 for DVI (Digital Video Interface)communication 308 with the computer monitor 314.

DVI is a specification created by the Digital Display Working Group(DDWG) to accommodate analog and digital monitors with a singleconnector. The codec 306 is electrically coupled to the GMCH 302 via theaforementioned bus/port 304 (which carries pixel data) and a high speedserial command interface (i.e. I2C (Inter-IC) bus, i.e., abi-directional two-wire serial bus that provides a communication linkbetween integrated circuits (ICs)). The codec 306 allows multipledisplay types to be supported by the GMCH 302.

The graphics controller software 202 includes video BIOS (basicinput/output system) and software drivers 310. As understood by those ofordinary skill in the art, BIOS is the program a personal computersmicroprocessor uses to get the computer system started after receivingpower. It also manages data flow between the computer's operating systemand attached devices such as the hard disk, video adapter, keyboard,mouse, and printer.

The video BIOS and software drivers (VBIOS) 310 communicate with boththe GMCH 302 and a software module 312 which may be referred to as atype of display codec. A uniform command interface for the softwaremodule 312 eliminates the need for hard-coding or for a hardwareabstraction layer (HAL) in the graphics controller 118. It should berecognized that no hardware abstraction layer is needed in the graphicscontroller 118 because a uniform hardware interface is defined/specifiedwith the software module 312 and the codec 306. As a result, multipledisplay codecs may be supported by a single “universal” software modulethat is part of the graphics controller software 202.

This methodology offers several benefits. For example, software module312 is supported without software update because many codecs can besupported by a single software driver because the codecs respond to eachand every command in a standardized manner. In addition, users can add anewly developed software module 312 to their computer system 100 andhave that module 312 supported without needing to upgrade their VBIOS310 or graphics drivers.

Another benefit is the reduction of graphics software controller codesize. For example, rather than having several codec software modules(one for each codec) which perform very similar functions, there is asingle module 204.

Further benefits include allowing the software module/display codec 312to be used in other environments with less effort. Conventionaltechnologies find it difficult to support the display codec 312 across awide range of operating environments. For example, work done to get aset of display codecs working in some operating systems will not aidsupport of the codecs in other operating systems or embeddedapplications. New abstraction layers must be developed for eachenvironment. Through the use of the disclosed embodiment, simply portingthe control module 204 to a new environment means that many displaycodecs 312 will work in that environment. Another advantage of thedisclosed embodiment is that codec vendors are able to make codec modelswithout requiring a software update for new codecs to work.

Graphics controller software 202 development constraints (e.g., addingother features, fixing bugs, headcount constraints) have often preventedcodec vendors from implementing their desired product. The disclosedembodiment establishes a large number of display codecs 312 that may besupported without any additional development effort needed in thegraphics controller software 202.

The disclosed embodiment describes, among other things, a standard SDVOcommand set that an SDVO codec must support. The graphics controllersoftware 202 uses these commands to query the device 306 on itscapabilities. The software 202 also uses the commands to configure andcontrol the software module (codec) 312. The SDVO command set provides astandard for SDVO codecs and a driver (software module 312) that allowSDVO codecs to be controlled by a single “universal” software module.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram 500 of a process for communicating between acodec and a graphics controller according to principles of a disclosedembodiment. In a first step 502, a storage medium is created for storingat least portions of a graphics controller. In a second step 504, thestorage medium is used to store a software driver that is configured towork with different display codecs at different periods of time whileusing a default configuration of the software driver. Next step 506 iswhen a codec is introduced into the system to communicate with thegraphics controller. In the final step 508, communication takes placebetween the graphics controller and the codec. As described herein, thecodec may be replaced without needing to replace the software driver,hence, the term universal software driver. Of course, the abovedescribed steps are not necessarily limited to the order in which theyare described.

While the present disclosure has been used to describe severalembodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that theinvention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can bepracticed with modification and alteration within the spirit and scopeof the appended claims. The description is thus to be regarded asillustrative instead of limiting.

1. An article comprising: a storage medium comprising machine-readableinstructions stored thereon to: execute a software driver for a displaycodec, the software driver configured to control a first display codecthat formats data into a first video format and control a second displaycodec of a plurality of display codecs that formats data into a secondvideo format, wherein the software driver is capable of controlling morethan one type of display codec without modification, so that a defaultconfiguration of the software driver does not change when using of thefirst display codec is changed to using of the second display codec; andto control transmitting the data having the first video format from thefirst display codec to a first display and control transmitting the datahaving the second video format from the second display codec to a seconddisplay.
 2. The article of claim 1 wherein the software driver comprisesmachine readable instructions to recognize each of a plurality ofdisplays including the first display and the second display.
 3. Thearticle of claim 2 wherein the plurality of displays consist of digitaldisplays selected from the group consisting of a flat panel, a LCD(liquid crystal display), an HDTV (high definition television), a plasmadisplay, and a computer monitor.
 4. The article of claim 1 wherein thestorage medium receives digital signals from a cable television outlet.5. The article of claim 1 wherein the storage medium receives digitalsignals from a satellite.
 6. The article of claim 1 wherein the storagemedium receives digital signals from a wireless transmission device. 7.A method comprising: executing a software driver for a display codec totransmit digital signals to a display, the software driver configured tocontrol a first display codec that formats data into a first videoformat and control a second display codec of a plurality of displaycodecs that formats the data into a second video format, wherein thesoftware driver is capable of controlling more than one type of displaycodec without modification, so that a default configuration of thesoftware driver does not change when using of the first display codec ischanged to using of the second display codec, wherein the first displaycodec is configured to transmit the data having the first video formatto a first display and the second display codec is configured totransmit the data having the second video format to a second display. 8.The method of claim 7 wherein the software driver is part of a graphicscontroller for communicating with the plurality of display codecs. 9.The method of claim 8 wherein each of the display codecs comprises ahardware portion that communicates with the software driver such thatthe graphics controller recognizes each of the plurality of displaycodecs at different periods of time.
 10. The codec control method ofclaim 8 where the software driver comprises a storage medium for thegraphics controller known as a universal software driver.
 11. A systemcomprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor to supportthe processor operations; an Ethernet card interoperating with theprocessor and the memory for network communications; a first displaythat communicatively couples with the processor through a display codecto display images from data that are received at the first display fromthe first codec in a first video format; and a graphics controllerhaving a software driver configured to control the first display codecthat formats data into the first video format and control a seconddisplay codec of a plurality of display codecs that formats the datainto a second video format, wherein the software driver is capable ofcontrolling more than one type of display codec without modification, sothat a default configuration of the software driver does not change whenusing of the first display codec is changed to using of the seconddisplay codec, wherein the second display codec is configured totransmit the data having the second video format to the second display,the graphics controller being communicatively coupled to the processor.12. The system of claim 11 wherein the software driver comprises auniversal software driver.
 13. The system of claim 11 wherein the firstdisplay is a digital display.
 14. The system of claim 13 wherein thefirst display is selected from the group consisting of a flat panel, aLCD (liquid crystal display), an HDTV (high definition television), aplasma display, and a computer monitor.
 15. A graphics controllercomprising: a memory, and a software driver coupled to the memory,wherein the software driver is configured to control a first displaycodec that formats data into a first video format and to control asecond display codec of a plurality of display codecs that formats thedata into a second video format, wherein the software driver is capableof controlling more than one type of display codec without modification,so that a default configuration of the software driver does not changewhen using of the first display codec is changed to using of the seconddisplay codec, wherein the first display codec is coupled to a firstdisplay, and a second display codec is coupled to a second display. 16.The graphics controller of claim 15 wherein the software drivercomprises a universal software driver.
 17. The graphics controller ofclaim 15 further comprising a storage medium for the software driverthat communicates with at least the first display codec, the softwaredriver recognizing each of the plurality of display codecs.
 18. A methodcomprising: emulating a graphics controller having a universal softwaredriver to allow the graphics controller to communicatively couple with afirst one of a plurality of display codecs, the graphics controlleroperating with default settings, wherein the software driver isconfigured to control the first one of the plurality of the displaycodecs that formats data into a first video format and control a secondone of the plurality of display codecs that formats the data into asecond video format, wherein the software driver is capable ofcontrolling more than one type of display codec without modification, sothat a default configuration of the software driver does not change whenusing of the first one of the plurality of display codecs is changed tousing of the second one of the plurality of codecs, wherein the firstone of the plurality of codecs is coupled to a first display and thesecond one of the plurality of codecs is coupled to a second display.19. The method of claim 18 further comprising emulating replacing thefirst one of the plurality of display codecs with the second one of theplurality of display codecs.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein thesecond one of the plurality of display codecs is an SDVO codec.